Today was awesome.

Despite being disappointed by New Zealand (no offence to any Kiwis reading; the weather turned sour and thwarted my plans to go to Queenstown, so I wound up coming back to Australia early) I've managed to have a very nice weekend. Saturday was a lazy sort of day, spent resting after a very bumpy flight from Christchurch. I've never been on a more violent flight - we caught heavy winds while climbing up over the mountains and the plane literally felt like it was being thrown about. At one point it felt like a free-fall. Needless to say, I was never so happy to touch ground again in Melbourne. :P

So, Saturday was a day of rest. Sunday on the other hand was spent out of doors, roaming the countryside a couple of hours outside of the city. We went to Lake Eildon, which is huge and gorgeous, and then we went to Cathedral Range State Park for a long hike.

The road there was gorgeous. At one point we passed through the Yarra Ranges which is a rainforest - my first time in a real rainforest. It was spectacular. Along the way we saw many a dead wombat on the side of the road, lots of cows, horses and llamas, and dozens of beautiful wild birds.

And once in Cathedral Park, I not only heard a kookaburra but I also saw a small herd of kangaroo hopping through the forest. :D I think THAT is when it FINALLY sunk in that I am in Australia.

The view from the summit was worth the extremely taxing (for me) climb. I make no excuses: I am lazy, out of shape and American. I don't climb ladders let alone mountains! But Anna2 kept me going and eventually we made it for an unbelievable view (and a lot of wallaby poo).

Driving back we saw small herds of kangaroo in the distance, grazing in fields. It was totally surreal.

Check my flickr page for photos (no roos, though; the buggers are shy and very fast).

And now, sleep.

PS: Anna2 is an excellent driver. It has to be said. :D

Australia is awesome. Simply awesome.

After about 24 hours in Sydney I caught a flight to Melbourne, where I've been staying with asynca. She is a delightful hostess. I've been mostly resting up, because tomorrow I'm going to New Zealand and then after I get back, we have a long road trip from here to Adelaide, and then on to Uluru (Ayers Rock). A little R&R never hurt anybody, anyway.

That's not to say I haven't been seeing the sights! On Sunday, Anna and I went to the Healesville Sanctuary to gawk at cool animals and such. Tuesday we went into Melbourne proper for shopping and sightseeing, yummy lunch and general goofing around. Melbourne is a great city so far, I'm quite impressed. And everyone's incredibly friendly.

Tomorrow I'm off to New Zealand, specifically the South Island and Christchurch. After a night there I catch a bus to Queenstown, where I'll take a Lord of the Rings tour of filming locations, because I am that much of a nerd. Then it's back to Christchurch for two days before returning to Melbourne.

As always, pictures can be found here. I'll make a new set for NZ, but the Australia set will be constantly updated with more photos as I take them.

And now, packing!

Yesterday, I landed in Sydney. It wasn't a bad flight; just ten hours from gate to gate. I did have to move seats because my seatmate was extremely drunk, but the flight attendants were lovely about it. I had my own little Video On Demand thingy, so I watched The Last Mimzy and an episode of House ("Maternity"), and one of Scrubs ("My New Coat"). I slept a lot, too.

Sydney is chaotic. It reminds me a bit of Dublin in the cosmopolitan sense. It's too colorful to be anything like London, and too messy to be New York. I shouldn't compare it really; Sydney is itself. I made my way to my hostel, where I showered, let people know I'd landed in one piece, and collapsed at 8pm. I slept until 6am the next day.

Saturday morning I was up and out before 8am, which is UNHEARD of for me. I didn't know what to do with myself! So, I walked. I walked to Darling Harbour, and after a bit of debating as to whether or not I wanted to go to the aquarium, I instead hopped a ferry to Circular Quay. An excellent choice as it afforded me spectacular views of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the infamous Opera House, which is much tinier than I expected. At Circular Quay I decided to hop another ferry to Taronga Zoo, because me + zoo = <3

I. saw. a. platypus.

Here are my pictures from today. Lots of animals, lots of boats, lots of blue sky. The weather here is gorgeous. I probably should have gone to Bondi Beach, but it was a little nippy for that.

Now I'm hopping a flight to Melbourne to hang out and bother asynca! Toodles!

This is the LOTR tour I'm taking. So far, the people have been nice to deal with. It's a little expensive but it's a LOT in one day, so why the hell not?

There's another tour that goes to Mt. Sunday (Edoras) out of Christchurch. I'm debating whether to do it. I want to stand on that mountain and look out over, uh, Rohan. :D

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OMG.

It's official! I'm going to New Zealand for a week. I'll stay in Christchurch for a couple of nights before catching a bus to Queenstown, where a lot of the LOTR tours leave out of. I've also decided that while I am there, I'm getting another tattoo - "There and back again," in Bilbo's handwriting, in a circle on my shoulderblade. :D

Now comes the fun part: deciding what to take, and how big of a bag to take. Should I take my backpack or a rolly bag? I'll be gone a month and even though it's springy there, I will need some warm stuff for the outback at night and any rain I might encounter. I need at least two pairs of shoes, one good for walks/hikes and one pair of sandals. One pair of jeans should be enough; I really don't need to take too much in the way of clothing because I'll have laundry access, so I can just wash stuff and wear it again. Who cares if I wear the same shirt twice in a week?

I need to figure out my electronics as well. I should make a list.

I LOVE LISTS.

So, the itinerary is coming together! So well that I made a Google calendar of it:



Lots of travel in there. The blank spaces are things I haven't sorted out yet (like whether or not I can afford New Zealand, omg). asynca and I just decided that we would go to Cairns instead of Brisbane, for the Great Barrier Reef. Even though I can't swim there are tour companies who will take you out anyway for a dive! Eeee!

Should I go to New Zealand? I should, shouldn't I? Argh.

I'm always torn between planning things and not planning anything at all. I like to be able to do things spur of the moment, which happened a lot in Europe: hopping a train in one direction instead of the other, forgoing the organised tour in favor of roaming around aimlessly, thus more likely to find the good spots than the overrun, touristy areas.

On the other hand, arranging things in advance takes the stress out of not knowing where you're going or when you're going to get there. Having a ticket in hand is better than getting skunked the day-of, and reservations are often essential things to have.

So, I think I'm going to plan the New Zealand aspect of my trip, but leave at least one day wide-open with nothing planned at all, so I can either wander or be still. Australia's not so dire as far as planning is concerned; I pretty much know what I'm going to be doing and where, thanks to asynca

Here's a question: What do I do about prescriptions? I get them all refilled right before I leave, but I will run out before I get home. What do I do about that? Is that something my doctor can help me with?

I need to make a list of what I'm taking. I'm trying to keep it limited to one bag. For a month. Thank God I'll be able to do laundry. ;-)

Hi there!

This is my Australian travel journal. Here's where I'll be talking about my trip to Australia and New Zealand from September 28 - October 25. You'll find planning, spazzing, photos, accounts of adventures, and whatever else I feel like posting. I also welcome advice on things I need to see, ways to save money, and offers to meet up and hang out with my Australian fandom friends.

Friend me! Nothing in this journal will ever be locked, so don't be offended if I don't friend back straight away. Got lots to do, and I'm fairly scatterbrained.

As the poet said, w00t!

PS: The username comes from the fellow in my icon, a big Australian lizard called a goanna, and my given name Anna. Pretty clever, huh?